Flip the 6th, part one

simplemoralcompass

By Edward Miller

So close, so far away.

For weeks we’ve been “working our Ossoff” for a 30-year-old Democrat named Jon Ossoff who, in a field of 18 candidates for the 6th District Congressional seat vacated in January by secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price, came within a hair’s breadth of an outright victory.

An unexpectedly strong 48.1 percent showing on Tuesday put Ossoff into a June 20 runoff with the leading Republican candidate in a traditionally conservative district that sent Rep. Newt Gingrich and Sen. Johnny Isakson to Washington. But close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. The campaign goes on.

C EFor months hundreds of volunteers have been canvassing neighborhoods to “Flip the 6th,” a middle-class suburban district in north of Atlanta. Until recently, the district has been a Republican stronghold. Tom Price was never seriously challenged since he first ran in 2004. Mitt Romney won the district by 23 percentage points in 2012.

But things started to turn in 2016 when Cobb County “turned blue” for Hillary Clinton. In the 6th District, Donald Trump won by only 1.5 percentage points.

Ossoff, a former congressional staffer and documentary filmmaker is heavily supported by the Democratic National Committee and has raised more than $8 million. The local Republicans benefited from a RNC-sponsored television campaign aimed directly at Ossoff and robo calls and tweets from Trump. Expect that national support to continue on both sides. The GOP doesn’t want to lose what has become a referendum on the Trump administration and the Democrats want to build momentum going into the 2018 mid-term elections.

Canvassing in the hilly neighborhoods of East Cobb, Cindy and Joe and I have heard it all:

  • “We appreciate what you’re doing. We’re with Jon.”
  • “My wife’s not here and I’m a Republican, so bye.”
  • “What election?”

For the next two months we will continue to be among hundreds of “boots on the ground” who in the post-inauguration march in Atlanta repeatedly chanted: “This is what democracy looks like.”

Indeed it does.